Hi, everybody! Wow...I am so sorry for making y'all wait so long. My creativity took a hike and didn't see fit to come home (unless the ex ran off with it, too...). Somehow though, this happened. And I'm glad at least something came to me. Really sorry for falling behind. Between no creativity on my own work here, I've been collaborating with some friends on another work (PM for details if you want em...), still trying to finish up my degrees at University, and knowing that I need to move soon...it's been rough! But, I'm still alive and still trying to write, so... Well, anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter that took an interesting turn that even I didn't see coming!

I make no claims to Voltron or any WEP characters.

Keith laid awake in Duvessa's bed, thinking over the last few days' events, gently stroking her hair. He felt her suddenly tense in his arms and shudder hard, gasping. "Vess?"

Duvessa looked up at him, tears in her eyes. "Keith?" She sat up and looked around her room.

"What is it? What's wrong?"

"I…bad…bad dream."

Keith closed his eyes a moment, reaching over and started rubbing small circles on her back. "It's all right, Vess. Talk about it."

"Just the last few days. The people who were taken," she whispered. "I never expected…" She trailed off and silently sobbed.

Keith felt her sob and sat up, pulling her into his arms. "It's all right. Let it out. I promise, we'll find a way to bring them home."

She slid her arms around him and laid her head on his shoulder. "I – I know we will. Just imagining how terrified they are, what could be happening to them…"

Keith cringed and squeezed her. "You can't think that right now. It will drive you insane."

She hiccupped softly. "I know that. In my head, I know, but I can't help it."

He softly stroked her back, rocking her gently. "I know. We can't help what we feel. And with what we've gone through the last couple of days, I know you're exhausted."

She nodded and sniffled softly. "Gods, Keith. I'm sorry, I didn't mean…"

"Shhh. It's all right. Come on, lay back down and try to sleep. We can't help the people if we're exhausted and unable to do our jobs." He slowly laid back, pulling her with him, noting she didn't resist. "Everything is going to work out." He felt her nod and her breathing slowly calmed. Whatever gods are out there, please, don't make me a liar.


Lance opened his eyes, shifting slightly as sunlight shone in his eyes. He couldn't move much as his wife was curled up next to him, her head laying on his chest. He grinned. He loved mornings like this. He toyed with a lock of her blond hair that was dangling into her face. "Such an angel," he whispered.

Allura twitched her nose, something tickling it. "Mmmm. Stop it," she murmured, sliding one hand over his stomach.

Lance chuckled softly. "Morning, love."

"Mmmm. Morning," she whispered. She looked up at him. "We have a lot to do today."

"Yeah, I know," he murmured, frowning. "We've gotta go investigate that town. Your aunt was pretty upset."

"I can't blame her," Allura answered. "All that time and we had no clue. It makes even me mad."

"Yeah, I know. How we could have missed it? I know Pidge said they were using Baltan stealth technology, but…"

Allura took a deep breath. "We're not all seeing, unfortunately." She sat up and pulled on her nightgown. "We should get moving."

"We'll get the people back, Allura. I promise."

She looked back at him over her shoulder and smiled. "I know, Lance. Now, come on. Let's take a shower."

Lance smiled back and followed her. "You didn't need your nightgown for a shower."

Allura looked back at him over her shoulder and grinned. "You wouldn't have agreed as easily if I hadn't. You'd have lured me back into bed."

Lance laughed. "Good point." He picked her up and carried her into the bathroom.


The Lions landed outside the empty town. Soldiers were moving along the streets, searching every house. The team made their way to the town square where the soldiers had set up a headquarters.

Keith stopped outside the tent and turned to Lance. "Lance, take Hunk, Pidge and the cadets and help the soldiers. Look for any survivors. Allura, Vessa and I will talk to the captain and then come help."

Lance nodded. "All right." He gently patted Keith's arm and turned to the rest of the team, heading off to search other homes.

Duvessa bit her lip watching them go, then looked around at the town. She'd visited here once prior to her long stay in cryostasis. It had changed a lot. War will do that, I suppose. It was so quiet, eerily so. "Where could they have set up their lab?"

"Just outside the town in a hidden underground bunker," a voice behind them stated. They turned to see a captain standing just outside the command tent. He saluted. "I'm Captain Orlandson, Your Highnesses and Commander. Welcome to Torvia."

"What updates do you have, Captain?" Keith asked.

"The town, for the most part, is completely empty that we've seen so far. We did find some survivors in the forest. They said they managed to flee before Doom's troops fully locked down the town. Most of them knew nothing about the secret base," Orlandson stated.

"And the ones that did?" Allura asked.

"We have them sequestered in the tent ready for transport to the castle as ordered. We weren't expecting you to come out here considering that order," Orlandson answered with a nod. "However, if you'd like to question them here you may."

Keith nodded. "We will." He looked at Duvessa and Allura. "Shall we?" he asked and the three followed the captain into the tent.


Lance was getting angrier every house they walked through, looking for survivors. It had been obvious that many families had been sitting down to dinner when they'd been forced from their homes. This house was not so different from many of the others he'd already been through: the door kicked in, furniture overturned, a scorch mark on the wall from a laser blast. He knelt on the floor by the body of an adult male. "Damn it." He reached out, gently closing the eyes of the man. "I'm so sorry," he whispered. He lifted his Voltcom. "Pidge. Hunk. I've got a dead one. Must have resisted."

"Yeah, seems to be a recurring thing," came Pidge's voice. "I've found one or two like that."

"Same here," Hunk agreed. "The princesses aren't going to like this."

"Yeah," Lance murmured. "I already don't." He stood up and finished walking through the house, not finding anything. He sighed and turned to leave and noticed a door to a closet moving slightly. He drew one of his Magma Pistols and slowly moved towards it. He ripped the door open and was met with a scream.

"Lance? What was that?" Pidge demanded.

Lance stared at the young child who was cowering in the closet. "Hey. It's all right. I'm Voltron Force," he stated, his Voltcom flashing and his pistol disappearing. He knelt down in front of him. "I'm Lance."

The boy threw himself at Lance, hugging him tightly and sobbing. "They…they killed my dad and took my mom!"

Lance grimaced at what the boy said and hugged him tight as thoughts of his own childhood tried to push through. He shoved them aside, he had to be here for this kid. "It's all right. We're going to get her back," he whispered. "Pidge, I've got a live one. I'm taking him back to the command post."

"Roger that," Pidge stated. "Poor kid."

Lance stood, lifting the boy up as he did. "Come on. Let's get you out of here, all right?"

The boy nodded against Lance's shoulder and Lance left the house, heading for the command post.

Keith was already outside the command tent waiting on him as he walked up. "This the one you found?"

Lance nodded and gently set the boy down on his feet. He squatted down in front of the boy, Keith doing the same beside him. "What's your name?"

"Logan," the boy whispered.

"Hi, Logan," Lance stated with a soft smile. "This is Keith. Can you tell us what happened?"

Logan looked between the two men and nodded. "It happened so fast. Mom was finishing dinner and the door burst open and she screamed. Dad yelled for us to run, and then I heard blasters. I was in my room, so I hid in the closet."

Keith frowned. "Seems to be what happened most everywhere here," he murmured, looking at Lance.

"We were told we couldn't leave the house or contact anyone," Logan stated. He wiped his eyes with his sleeve. "Someone would bring us food every few days. Mom and Dad were scared. I think they tried to hide it from me, but I knew something was wrong."

"Logan, how long were you stuck at home for?" Keith quizzed.

"Awhile. About a month or two?" Logan answered. "I wasn't even allowed to go to school. I miss my friends."

Lance stood up and walked a few paces away, angrily running his fingers through his hair. "Right under our noses," he muttered. He spun back. "How many more could be hiding out there?"

Keith stood up, an angry expression on his face. "I don't know. But we're going to find out." He looked back at Logan, his expression softening. "Logan, are you hungry or thirsty?"

Logan nodded.

"All right. I'm going to take you inside and get you something to eat and then, we're going to take you back to the Castle, all right?"

Nod. "All right."

Keith looked to Lance. "Get back to it. We'll join you as soon as we're done."

Lance nodded. "Yeah." He turned and headed back to the search as Keith took Logan into the tent.

Allura turned as Keith entered the command tent with a young boy and stood when Keith nodded at her. She smiled. "Hello, there. I'm Princess Allura."

"Hello, Princess. I'm Logan," the boy answered.

"I'm going to guess that you're hungry. Come with me and I'll get you something," she stated, holding her hand out to him.

Logan took her hand and the two walked off to the back corner of the tent where some food and water were sitting, ready for any other survivors.

Duvessa walked over to Keith after she finished asking a few more questions. She shook her head. "Nothing else from anyone," she whispered.

Keith nodded. "They had this town locked down. Nothing in or out for months. And we were clueless."

"Yes," she agreed. "The captain says they're ready to get the survivors back to the castle to have them checked out." She looked over to where Allura was helping the boy pick out some food and something to drink. "That the one Lance found?"

"Yeah. He doesn't know anything more than the others," Keith stated. "We're going to have to have local authorities check each town for any other hidden bunkers or towns locked down for no apparent reason. We're not going to have this happen again."

She nodded. "I'll get on that right away," she stated and went to move off to the communications console.

Keith touched her arm and looked at her. "We will get them back."

She smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "I know." She nodded towards Allura and Logan. "When he's ready, the captain will get him onto the truck with the others and back to the castle."

Keith gave her a curt nod and she moved away. He passed on to Allura what Duvessa had said, then walked outside to join the search.

Once finished clearing the town, only a few more survivors were found. One had needed an immediate evacuation to the castle for injuries from a laser blast, the Drules having left the injured woman for dead.

"Do we know where the bunker is?" Pidge asked. "It might be useful to see what they were actually up to."

"Southeast of here," Keith stated. "Let's go take a look."

They headed out on foot, arriving within a few minutes.

"This is an old bunker from before the war," Allura stated, shaking her head as the bunker entrance came into view. "They just…used our old infrastructure against us."

A mechanical whirring came from the trees on either side of the path. "Identification scan. Not on file. Intruders."

"Uh oh. That can't be good," Hunk muttered.

"Down!" Keith yelled as lasers began to fire on the path. He dove towards the side, everyone following his lead.

The lasers kept firing, tracking each person as an alarm was ringing in the bunker.

Pidge rolled, avoiding several shots, smart stars appearing in his hands. He flung one to each side of the path, then rolled again to avoid being hit. His aim was true and they hit their targets, exploding on impact.

The lasers stopped and Keith raised his head, his swords in his hands. "Everyone all right?"

"Yeah. We're good," Lance growled. He shot a glare at the bunker. "Nice welcome."

"Well, keep alert. If they had those installed, who knows what else might come out to greet us," Keith cautioned.

The alarm from the bunker hadn't stopped, in fact, it seemed to be getting quicker.

"Uh, I don't think that's a standard intruder alarm," Hunk stated, his eyes narrowed. "Sounds more like a bomb."

Keith looked at him, a feeling of dread knifing down his spine. "Run!"

As a group, they scrambled up from where they'd sought shelter and ran back the way they came, just as an explosion ripped through the bunker, sending chunks of concrete and dirt flying into the air around them.